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Archive for the 'Conventions' Category

NOTE: When Words Collide in Calgary has a membership cap — they sell a finite number of admissions — and they’re 78% full already for the August 2015 convention.When Words Collide is my favourite convention, bar none; there’s simply no better networking opportunity for professional fiction writers in Canada. Conference chair Randy McCharles — himself […]

Science Fiction: The Interdisciplinary Genre turned out to be one of the best weekends of my life. Over one hundred scholars from all over North America joined us for this amazing conference in honour of the donation of my archives to McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. The conference was sponsored by the McMaster Faculty of […]

In honour of the donation of Robert J. Sawyer‘s papers and archives to McMaster University, in Hamilton, Ontario, that institution is hosting an academic conference entitled “Science Fiction: The Interdisciplinary Genre” Friday, September 13, through Sunday, September 15, 2013. The call for papers (CFP) is here. Special guests at the conference are Hugo Award-winning author […]

Answer: because they don’t sell memberships at the door, and they cap sales for pre-registration. This weekend, I have to be in Vancouver, British Columbia, as a presenter at the Surrey International Writers Conference. Sometime shortly after that — but the date is yet to be precisely nailed down, but it might be Friday, October […]

More and more science-fiction conventions have taken to asking authors to donate things to charity auctions, which, on its surface, seems like a great idea: let’s see if we can raise some money for this cause or that. The problem: conventions that don’t have the turnout, or don’t do the hustle at the con, to […]

Random thoughts on Readercon 20: I’m at Pearson — Toronto’s airport — changing planes on my way back to Saskatoon from Readercon 20 in Boston. It was a great, great convention — and I made a point of telling both Eric Van (this year’s programming chair) and Bob Colby (who founded Readercon 20 years ago) […]

Tomorrow (Friday, July 10, 2009), at 5:00 p.m. in Room 458 (but you have to sign up in advance at the con, and space is quite limited): an opportunity to spend an intimate hour over coffee (or whatever) with me. Always one of my favourite parts of any convention that has them. Visit The Robert […]

Con-Version is Calgary’s annual SF&F convention. Author Guests of Honour this year are Terry Brooks, Tanya Huff, and Robert J. Sawyer — and now there’s a nifty promo for the con on YouTube. Check it out. See you in August! Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Siteand WakeWatchWonder.com

A few interesting facts about this year’s Aurora Awards and the ceremony at which they will be presented, courtesy of the website for Anticipation, the World Science Fiction Convention in Montreal, which is hosting the Auroras this year: “Since the Awards will be held in Montreal, we are placing emphasis on access to French works, […]

Toronto’s Ad Astra science-fiction convention has always been very good to me, and next year, they’ll be having me back as one of their Guests of Honour. (The other author GoHs are Eric Flint and Todd McCaffrey, both of whom are friends — I’m looking forward to spening some time with them.) This will be […]

Alan White produced the wonderful tribute fanzine Flashing Forward with Robert J. Sawyer as part of promoting the terrific SF convention Xanadu Las Vegas at which I was author Guest of Honor last month. You can download the amazing zine as a PDF file right here. Needless to say, I’m incredibly flattered. Visit The Robert […]

(To quote Sally Field, for the humor-impaired …) So, Capricon — a major Chicago-area science-fiction convention — polled its attendees to see which Guests of Honor from their previousw 29 years they’d most like to have come back for the 30th year. I’m honored and thrilled to be one of those chosen. Capricon 30, a […]

Xanadu Las Vegas, the convention I’m Author Guest of Honor at right now, has been great fun so far. Today I gave a talk on writing, attended talks by Chase Masterson (above) and Lawrence Montaigne (below, with me and Carolyn), watched Chase’s excellent new movie Yesterday was a Lie, and had a wonderful three-hour Chinese […]

As if this wasn’t crazy enough, it’s just been confirmed that Toronto will have two of its SF cons on the same weekend next year! Both Ad Astra, the general con, and FilKONtario, the filking con, are April 9 through 11, 2010. Unbelievable! For the record, it’s Ad Astra that changed its date, resulting in […]

So, we have six major general-interest regional science-fiction conventions left in Canada: VCON in Vancouver, Con-Version in Calgary, Pure Speculation in Edmonton, KeyCon in Winnipeg, Ad Astra in Toronto, and Con*Cept in Montreal. And, incredibly, three of them are on the same weekend in 2009! VCON, Pure Speculation, and Con*Cept are all the first weekend […]

Sadly, I’ve had to bow out of Norwescon in Seattle this month. It’s a great con, and I’m very sorry to miss it. I’ll still be at the other cons and festivals I’m scheduled for this year: FilKONtario, Xanadu Las Vegas, The Frye Festival, Keycon, Readercon, the Montreal Worldcon, Con-Version, VCON, the Surrey International Writers […]

I’m Special Guest at FilKONtario this weekend in Toronto, Canada’s largest filking convetion. Come on out and join the fun! I’m particularly thrilled because my friends Randy McCharles and Val King are coming all the way from Calgary for the con. W00t! The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Ad Astra, Toronto’s annual general-interest SF convention, wrapped up today. It was one of the best Ad Astras in years, and I had a great time. Highlights included drinks Friday night with David G. Hartwell, Kathryn Cramer, Terence M. Green, Merle Casci, and their children; giving a standing-room-only reading from Wake, a great panel today […]

I try to make it to as many major regional SF conventions in Canada as I can each year. This year, I’ll be at VCON in Vancouver, Con-Version in Calgary, Keycon in Winnpeg, the World Science Fiction Convention in Montreal, and, of course, at Toronto’s Ad Astra, which begins tomorrow (not to mention Toronto’s FilKONtario […]

David G. Hartwell, my long-time editor at Tor, took this shot of me at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando last week. (And, yes, it was cool enough there that I was wearing a fleece much of the time.) His other shots from the conference are here. Photo: Robert J. […]

World Fantasy Award winner James Morrow Nebula Award winner Ted Chiang Hugo Award winner Robert J. Sawyer All reading together on the same stage: this Saturday morning, March 21, 2009, at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando, Florida. The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

I’m Author Guest of Honor at the convention Xanadu Las Vegas next month (April 17-19, 2009). There’s now a nifty video of me talking about why you should come to the con on YouTube. (It’s also a nice tour of my living room and some of my toys.) More about Xanadu Las Vegas is here, […]